


purr you all better

by plincess_cho (ai_hao)



Category: Super Junior
Genre: Author: Ai, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 06:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3477929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ai_hao/pseuds/plincess_cho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Heebum is the most important cat in the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	purr you all better

**Author's Note:**

> After reading [this](http://plincess-cho.tumblr.com/post/97515151524/meaganfanart-broccoleafveins-see-the-full) post, we decided that that's really why Heebum sleeps in between heechul's legs, because Heebum is trying to purr Heechul's legs back to health.

**Late 2006:**

Heechul comes home from the hospital completely exhausted and irritable. The members who are at the dorm welcome him home warmly, but are visibly relieved when he makes his way to his room and shuts the door. His roommates aren’t back yet from schedules. Either that, or they’re giving him space to adjust to being back.

Heechul eases himself into bed and is almost asleep when he feels something crawling under the covers. A furry paw steps on his calf, and Heebum crawls up into the space between Heechul’s legs. Heechul grumbles and tries to move the cat elsewhere. He is most decidedly _not_ in a mood for a game of Claw Your Crotch tonight. He keeps changing positions, hoping the cat will get the idea and leave him alone, but Heebum is persistent.

Finally, Heechul picks up the cat, limps over to the door, and unceremoniously pushes Heebum outside, locking the door before he can get back in. He maneuvers back to bed and tries to ignore the sound of meowing outside the door as he falls asleep.

*

He wakes up a few hours later to take some pain medication. He reaches for the bottle of pills on his nightstand and gulps back a few. The door opens and Han Geng enters, holding a jacket in one hand and a squirming cat in the other.

“Why is cat outside?” he asks in broken Korean by way of greeting. He sets Heebum down and the cat immediately beelines for Heechul.

“Aish,” Heechul growls. “Damn cat won’t leave my legs alone. Doesn’t he know they’re injured?”

Han Geng translates that into Chinese in his head before a light bulb turns on. “Yes! He knows!” he exclaims. He runs to the computer to pull up an article before dragging the laptop over to show Heechul. “He knows!” he says proudly, pointing at the screen.

“Hankyung, I can’t read Chinese,” Heechul groans.

Han Geng looks at the screen and realizes his mistake. He turns back to the computer, pecks at the keys for a moment, and makes a whole slew of confused sounds before successfully translating the page into Korean.

“Hospital legs,” he points at Heechul’s legs. “Cat loves you.” He makes a purring sound. “Cat wants you to be all better.” Heechul decides it’s easier to just read the article.

_“A cat’s purr vibrates at a frequency that promotes bone health and aids in healing.”_

Heechul looks at his cat. Heebum gazes back at him with large innocent gray eyes and starts to purr. Han Geng breaks out into a grin and his baby eyes crinkle. “See?”

Heechul mumbles something along the lines of “Okay you can stay but if you claw my crotch you’re out” and Han Geng just laughs.

(Heechul’s legs start to heal, slowly, and Heebum sleeps beside them every night, just to make sure they’re okay.)

*

**2008:**

The first texts Heechul gets from China are happy. Han Geng is overjoyed at being back home, particularly because he can understand everything _without_ the translator. He’s supposed to be on a diet but it’s hard when all of his favorite things are on sale from street vendors for only 2 kuai. He sends Heechul a list of things he wants to show him. Heechul texts back saying he assumes it’ll all be free because Han Geng owns all of China, right?

But after a few performances, the texts aren’t as positive and Heechul is ready for everyone to come back. Kyuhyun texts him at 3am with a frantic, “Zhou Mi’s crying and I don’t know what to do.”

(Zhou Mi, of course, when Heechul texts him to ask, tells him that everything is fine and China is great and when they get back and Heechul take him shopping? It hurts Heechul a little, so he texts Kyuhyun with another list of instructions.)

The manager announces SJM is coming home, and Heechul pretends he couldn’t care less. “Good, Hankyung can cook for me again,” he replies. He texts Han Geng something to that extent and orders him to “make Seasoning come over no matter what it takes.”

When a somewhat haggard Zhou Mi appears on his doorstep, Heechul directs him to the couch so he can pretend none of the bad things in China happened. Heebum scampers out of Heechul’s room and jumps right into Zhou Mi’s lap to snuggle. Zhou Mi strokes the cat’s fur and Heebum starts purring like a machine.

(“I think he likes me,” Zhou Mi says. Heechul just nods.)

*

 

**Early 2010:**

2009 was the year from hell, Heechul decides. He spends most of his time locked up in his room, hidden under the blankets on his bed hoping that this is all just a terrible nightmare. The room is eerily quiet with both of his roommates gone. He wants Han Geng to come back, if only to properly say goodbye. Everyone else is worried about him; hell, he’s worried about him. Ryeowook comes in a few times a day to set a plate of food on the nightstand for him before sneaking back out to the main part of the dorm.

Heechul wants to leave. How much are plane tickets to China? Or anywhere besides here?

There’s a hesitant knock on the door. Heechul expects Ryeowook, but it’s Hyukjae who pokes his face in. His eyes are swollen and his cheeks are stained with tears. Heechul doesn’t want to deal with him, or anyone, right now.

But Hyukjae sits on the bed opposite him, Han Geng’s bed, and says nothing for a very long time. At first Heechul hopes he’ll go away, but his presence is oddly calming.

“Have you heard from Hankyung hyung?” Hyukjae asks quietly.

“No.”

“Junsu won’t pick up my calls.”

Oh.

Heebum crawls out from underneath the covers and winds around Hyukjae’s ankles that are dangling off the bed.

(“Oddly enough, Eunhyuk is the one who helped me the most during that time,” Heechul says on a TV show years later.)

*

**March 2010:**

The Super Show 2 Encore in Shanghai is a complete and utter disaster. Heechul wants to murder every single person in the stadium with his bare hands. He finds Zhou Mi sobbing over the sink in the bathroom with Kyuhyun awkwardly patting his back in an attempt to be comforting. Kyuhyun turns at the sound of the door and his eyes betray his feelings.

_I don’t know what to do._

Heechul doesn’t either. One of the managers has to hold him back from going out onstage to give the “fans” a piece of his mind. None of the members jump up to help manager hyung; Heechul knows they’d run out with him.

Heechul is ready to go back to Korea. China isn’t the same without Han Geng. He can’t decide if it’s better that they didn’t cut Han Geng’s part out of the VCR, but he hopes he sees the photos.

(His mom does and sends Heejin over with a care package the minute he gets back. “Come home as soon as you can,” she says. Heechul thinks her fried rice has too much kimchi in it and tries not to think about Han Geng.)

Heebum is in Korea, warming up the pillow for when Heechul gets home.

*

**2011:**  
        
Heechul is very glad that he doesn’t have to move out of the dorms while he’s doing his public service.

Mainly because he doesn’t like change, is too lazy to move, and can’t cook for himself, but also because he doesn’t trust any of the members to properly take care of his cat. He had ruled out certain members right away: Donghae because he’d found him offering the cat a cookie saying “Hey cat! Eat!” in English; Ryeowook because he accidentally sat on Heebum and the cat ran away hissing; Kyuhyun because he wanted to come back to find his cat still alive; and Kangin because… Kangin.

He instructs the dorm aunties in Heebum’s care once again. They have the decency not to roll their eyes and remind him he’d already told them this last week, and the week before that, and who do you think it is who buys your cat food? But instead they fuss over Heebum who walks around like he’s the king of everything.

(“Would you take your cat into active service with you?” Kangin laughs. Heechul glares at him.)

*

**2014:**

Heechul pulls up his kakao profile while they’re lounging around at the restaurant after eating more than they should have. Han Geng’s still laughing at something someone else said while Heechul fiddles with his phone.

“Done,” he says. He shoves the phone in Han Geng’s face.

“Did you set that as your public photo?” Han Geng asks. “What if your fans find it?”

Heechul gives him a look that he’d seen so many times before. “Hanchul forever bitches,” he says in reply. “Man, I look hot in this photo.”

Han Geng smacks him.

They somehow sneak Han Geng back into the dorm and Heebum is beside himself. Han Geng wants to see how different the dorm looks all these years later, but Heebum keeps weaving in and out of his legs so he can’t walk. Heechul picks up Heebum so that Han Geng can admire his large collection of Frozen merchandise.

(“You are an idiot,” Han Geng tells him.  
“Wait how do you say that in Chinese?” Kyuhyun asks, notebook in hand.  
Han Geng refuses to tell him.)

They end up watching some dumb action movie that’s in Korean with Chinese subtitles. Heebum curls up in Han Geng’s lap and purrs contentedly. Han Geng absentmindedly scratches Heebum between the ears and thinks about everything that’s happened in the past few years. Even though this is Korea, it sometimes feels like home.

*

_“If your house was burning down and you could only grab three things, what would you grab?” the MC asks._

_“My computer,” Kyuhyun says cheekily. Everyone laughs._

_“Eunhyuk,” Donghae says, earning screams from all of the fangirls and a combination eye-roll/shove from Hyukjae._

_“What about you, Heechul?”_

_“My cat, Heebum.” There’s a collective “aww” from the audience and he continues. “Actually, my house caught on fire once a few years ago. All of my clothes were destroyed, almost a thousand. But I saved Heebum.”_

*

Heechul stands outside the dorm, shaking from the adrenaline and the cold. He clutches his cat in his hands and holds him close. Heebum is terrified and tries to grip onto Heechul’s shirt. The fire engine arrives and the firefighters rush out. “Is there anyone still inside?” one asks.

Heechul shakes his head. “No. We’re safe.”

*

_“I can replace my clothes, but I can’t replace my friend who has been with me all these years.”_

_When Heechul goes home after filming, Heebum snuggles between his legs, just like always. Heechul thinks about all the memories they’ve shared together and pulls back the covers to take a photo for instagram. Heebum doesn’t appreciate the interruption and lovingly claws Heechul’s crotch._

 


End file.
